[steven_ber]

Thread titles. How can we improve them?

This website is becoming very messy, there is loads of great information locked away in strange threads.

For example: - (though not real examples)

There will be loads of great advice about trekking around Kashmir in a thread titled "Hi, I'm Bob".

Maybe lots of wonderful advice about the backwaters of Kerala in a thread called "Please help".

You have probably witnessed many such examples, but how can we end this?

I get so tempted to delete old threads with poor titles, if a member is looking for info about getting from Goa to Hampi, they are not going to read an old thread called "Advice needed"

I added the following info to this thread at the top of the 'Itinerary Forum'.

Thread title.

A short, good description is important, a lot of members only visit the site once or twice a week, by that time there are maybe 5 - 600 new posts, the member will not have time to check them all, so they will check the threads that appeal to them or that they think they can help with.

Thread title's like "A little advice", or "help needed", or "Itinerary suggestions" may get overlooked, but thread titles like "Rajasthan, 2 weeks, April?", or Kerala & Goa, possible in 3 weeks?", or "Himachal, suggestions for May?" will get the attention of the members who can give good information on your chosen area.

ALSO, anyone looking at the same kind of Itinerary as you can follow the thread, this will save a lot of repeat questions.

But it's been largely ignored.

Any suggestions?

[Krishnika]

On the bright side, when you do a search it doesn't matter what the title is.

[machadinha]

Be more easy on rewriting thread titles and/or referring them to the appropriate forum? (Not so much work). PM every poster in the faint hope that they would take a hint and retitle it themselves assuming they can be bothered to figure out how to? (Probably lots of frustrating work.)

I don't know how risqué or ethical the former would be, more than 1-time posters might soon catch up on your drift though.

nb Deleting such posts seems like a shame, they're just less likely to be found. Then again how many people bother to use the search function let alone flick through the separate forums first though.

[steven_ber]

Originally Posted by Krishnika

On the bright side, when you do a search it doesn't matter what the title is.

Yes, I forgot to add that to my post, one of the reasons I don't delete old posts is that I remember mosts posts (well, the older one's at least) and can use the search engine to find any info.

Not that it's my place to delete old posts, just wish I could sometimes.

Originally Posted by machadinha

Be more easy on rewriting thread titles and/or referring them to the appropriate forum? (Not so much work). PM every poster in the faint hope that they would take a hint and retitle it themselves assuming they can be bothered to figure out how to? (Probably lots of frustrating work.)

I used to move new threads to the correct forums, but I just have not got the time these days, take a look through the 'Yak, Yak, Yak' forum and you will see what I mean, then there's all the Itinerary threads in the 'Introduce yourself' & 'Plane, Train & Automobile' forums.

I have changed a few thread titles recently, but then I've got to send a Private Message explaining why, again, just not enough time.

[Kanbe]

maybe add a small print under the Title in those Post New Threads pages along the lines of "Please be clear/informative in your title"

[passingby]

why don't you or MIke, add a field in the thread, like underneath the 'Title' field, which is suppose to be a drop down box with a bunch of subjects you select, such as:
my india trip
introduction
etc

you figure out the fields you want to place in.
but underneath the thread title you have the subject shown as well.
and this subject is a subject chosen from a list of subjects you guys come up with.

[Nick-H]

I'm with the technical suggestions. A pop-up box 'have you given your thread a good title' giving suggestions and guidance could happen for new threads bu new members ---but this sort of thing takes someone a lot of time.

Another idea: a PM automatically sent to all new members on registration giving bullet points about how to use the site.

[crvlvr]

Unclear titles are a problem on all Forums. But I think the Forum Categories on IM have been set up well and really help if you want to look for certain subjects.

[-m2-]

I was thinking about the same thing this morning when I saw a bunch of cutsie, non-informative thread titles. Perhaps on some forums that kind of thing gets attention, but as Steven says, with the volume of posts we get here it just means that many won't be bothered opening 'mystery threads'. In effect, the author is in part to blame if response is poor and their inquiry slides off the front pages and into the void without getting much attention.

Only a moderator can change a thread title once it has been posted so occasionally I'll add a word or two to a thread title (such as 'Trekking:' or 'Motorcycle Touring:' so that those interested in the subject will check the thread. Occasionally, I'll move a thread to a more appropriate forum so that it will be seen for a longer period and by the people that might be interested or can assist; I don't take the time to PM the author every time as a redirect is left in the original forum. It would be better if people would check which forum they are viewing before starting a new thread to be sure it is in an appropriate place and has a descriptive title.

Some other 'pet peeves'

Duplicate Posting: i.e. asking the same question in several forums in hopes of improving the chance of getting a satisfactory reply. It just confuses matters when answers to a question appear in different threads: we will delete duplicate threads leaving the one that is in the most appropriate section.

Redundant threads: look before you leap -- for example, we don't need a new thread for every plane purchase or new route announcement that comes along. Ask yourself first, 'is there another thread to which this tid-bit can be added ?' How many new threads on, say, malaria, do we need for example.

Copy and Pasting articles without attribution or original content. If you run across something you think will be of interest to the members, please at least tell us why you think it is interesting and credit the source and link it. Mike has listed some C&P rules, please read them before getting into the 'article posting mode'.

I could probably think of some more, but I'm actually in a pretty good mood this morning and not as grumpy as usual

m2

[SHIMLA]

1. A poster should first do a search on the forum and then post, if he/she dosen't find what he/she wants. Think whether a post/new thread is really necessary.

2. Make the thread title as specific as possible and then again, post it in the correct forum. eg."Travel Partners- Kerala -May" in the "Travel Partners" forum and "Itinerary advice-Kerala - May" in the "Itinerary advice" forum will fetch better responses.

[DoDi]

I think the problem is somewhat solved because of the popups that show the contents of the OP when you run a mouse over it.

The popup saved me from being fooled by steve's sneaky op title in this thread... so there! hah!

Another situation happens when threads go off of the OP's original topic, but may get into some good information. In this case the information would be completely hidden.

Maybe one way to solve it is to have threads that link to a particularly valuable or highly rated message in another post and whose thread title can then be appropriately assigned. Perhaps the power to do this should be limited, perhaps to senior members or some other catagory of user that we trust not to spew out too many of these, limiting them to the truly good posts.

There could be a keep alive status that would save these embedded messages from getting tossed out when the original thread goes away, and a nice iconic prize to identify these special threads that will make the authors of good messages feel.. well, good.

[sticky]

Originally Posted by -m2-

Redundant threads: look before you leap -- for example, we don't need a new thread for every plane purchase or new route announcement that comes along. Ask yourself first, 'is there another thread to which this tid-bit can be added ?' How many new threads on, say, malaria, do we need for example.

That could make finding information harder though, as searching only returns the thread title that your search term was found in, and if everyone posts into one thread on everything conceivably to do with malaria it would end up being 2000 pages long – you would then have to read the whole thing to get any value from it.



Also, threads often start off on one topic and diverge. Especially with the intros:



“Hi everyone I'm Blah-Blah and I'm going to India soon.”

“Hi Blah-Blah, don't miss XYZ” or something similar



Then it’s a whole conversation about XYZ.



And there is often more than one question/statement in one post too, which makes the whole thing more complicated.



I think on the whole IM is laid out extremely well, and info is easily accessible within a few steps - and I design web applications for a living, but yeah things can always be improved.



It’s not particularly easy to order the kind of information that is in this site, especially as it is already done pretty well.



It would be possible to create an index, like the one used for photos, adding keywords to threads and then ordering them by number of times the word appears or something. But I could imagine that would be a fair bit of work!!!

[xealot]

"That could make finding information harder though, as searching only returns the thread title that your search term was found in"

Go to advanced and you can select Show Results as Posts ... its down the bottom. It will probably give more results to sift through but can be handy none the less

[Nick-H]

Originally Posted by DoDi

Another situation happens when threads go off of the OP's original topic, but may get into some good information. In this case the information would be completely hidden.

Couldn't help noticing you didn't say "if"

[sticky]

Originally Posted by xealot

"That could make finding information harder though, as searching only returns the thread title that your search term was found in"

Go to advanced and you can select Show Results as Posts ... its down the bottom. It will probably give more results to sift through but can be handy none the less

problem is that most people wouldnt know about it... i didnt until you pointed it out. so things would be hard to find for most searches.